Frequently asked questions

The technician interviews you and inspects the house and property, then treats inside and out with the focus on the problem areas. Many of the products are extremely low odor. The exterior barrier goes around the foundation, garage, windows and doorways, first-floor eaves, fence lines and yard, and spider webs come down. You get corrective recommendations before the technician leaves.

Regular visits re-treat the exterior barrier, remove webs, and include advice on the conditions that attract pests. Interior treatment happens when there is a reason for it, which at most homes is less than once a year.

No. If a gate is locked or a dog is loose, the office sets a day that works, and any missed area gets a note and a free reschedule.

Less than once a year at most homes. Interior pests that show up between visits are covered by the guarantee for maintenance customers, so the answer is to call rather than wait for the next visit.

On rainy or saturated days a granular product that withstands up to four inches of rain goes around the base of the home, and liquid goes on protected areas such as eaves and covered entries.

Sometimes. Fleas after a pet is gone, or a move-out, are good one-time cases. For spiders a one-time treatment is usually a bandage because webs return; a recurring barrier service is replenished on a schedule. The technician will tell you which fits.

Follow the label guidance the technician gives you for the product used that day. Treated areas stay off limits until dry, and drying time varies with the weather. There is no single blanket waiting period.

Cash, personal checks, money orders, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Existing invoices can be paid online. Payments appreciated within 30 days of the service date; reminder statements every 30 days.

Beekeepers first, from Apex's referral list. A spring swarm resting in a tree usually moves on within a day or two and is left alone. Treatment is a last resort, only when bees are inside a structure and no beekeeper will take them.

No. Termites and other wood-destroying organisms are Branch 3 work and are referred to a termite company. Bed bugs are referred to a heat-treatment company and are not covered by the guarantee.

No. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Although Apex Pest Control Inc. does not offer after-hours pest control service, should you require emergency information during hours when our office is closed, please call (916) 392-2068, which forwards to an answering service when the office is closed. Product questions and emergencies, such as a pet getting into bait, not routine pest calls.

Look up Structural Pest Control Board company registration No. 2770 (Branch 2), and operators Jeffrey P. Alexander, No. 8484, Brent Brandon, No. 12138, and Jared F. Alexander, No. 14137, on the Department of Consumer Affairs license search. Links are in the footer of every page.

Often enough that the barrier never wears off. Exterior treatments break down with sun, irrigation and rain; a bi-monthly visit replenishes them before pests re-establish. At most homes the inside is retreated less than once a year, because a maintained barrier keeps the activity outside and the guarantee covers what gets in.

Apex runs bi-monthly programs only. In Jeff Alexander's words, with the products available to the industry today, the days of once-a-year pest control service are long behind us.

For a home that gets ants every heat wave and every first rain, spiders every summer, and outdoor roaches in the garage every fall, yes: the plan replaces three or four separate calls with a barrier that is already there, and it adds the callback guarantee. For a home with one isolated problem, no, and the office will say so. Apex has customers who have been on the program for 17 and 23 years, and their reviews are on this site.

Ask the office when you book; contract terms are reviewed with each customer for the specific home rather than published here. What is published is the program itself: an initial visit, regular bi-monthly exterior visits, and callbacks between visits for customers in good standing.

A continuing maintenance customer whose bills are paid, with a problem Apex was contracted to control. Payments are appreciated within 30 days of the service date, with reminder statements every 30 days.

The callback guarantee is for maintenance customers in good standing. A one-time service is recommended only when the office believes it will solve the problem, and if the situation calls for follow-up the office will say so before you book rather than sell a visit that will not hold.

Estimates are given over the phone from your home's square footage and what you are seeing. The estimate is confirmed at the home, because the interview and the walk-around often turn up more than the caller described. Call (916) 362-9294, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Until they are dry, following the label-specific guidance the technician gives you for what was applied. Drying time varies with the weather, so there is no single blanket waiting period. Ask the technician before the visit ends.

Yes. On rainy or saturated days the technician applies a granular product around the base of the home that withstands up to four inches of rain, and liquid goes on protected areas such as under the eaves and in the garage. The schedule holds, and the barrier does not get a gap because of weather.

Cash, personal checks, money orders, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, and online credit-card payment for existing invoices through the Make a payment link on this site. Payments are appreciated within 30 days of the service date, with reminder statements every 30 days.

Talk to the office. The interval is chosen for the pressure at your home, and it can be revisited as the seasons and the conditions around the house change.

Apex selects products by the pest, the placement and the label, and the technician tells you the label-specific re-entry, drying and cleaning guidance for what was applied at your home. Treated exterior areas stay off-limits until they are dry, and drying time varies with the weather, so there is no single blanket waiting period. Ask the technician before the visit ends; that is what the conversation is for.

They are looking for water. Several days of triple-digit heat push Argentine and other ants indoors toward sinks, tubs and pet bowls. The trail usually enters through a gap near plumbing or a window. Treating the trail alone scatters it; the technician traces it to the source and treats the barrier outside.

Non-repellent treatment is designed to spread through the colony by transfer, so activity can continue for a few days after the visit while it reaches the nest. That is expected. If a trail is still active after that, maintenance customers in good standing get a callback at no additional charge.

Repellent sprays scatter the survivors of a colony rather than reaching it, and a large Argentine colony simply reroutes. A non-repellent product or a bait reaches the part of the nest you cannot see, which is why Apex chooses by species before opening anything.

It depends on whether the conditions that fed the trail are still there. A one-time treatment can work for an isolated problem. If ants return every summer or every first rain, the maintenance program treats the barrier on every visit and covers callbacks in between.

For the first visit, yes, because it starts with an interview and includes the interior. Regular exterior treatments do not require you to be home. If a gate is locked or a dog is out, the technician leaves a note and the missed area is rescheduled at no extra cost.

Argentine ants and pavement ants make up most of the calls. Odorous house ants are common. Identification notes for each species are on this page.

A small, exposed paper wasp nest early in the season is sometimes a job a homeowner can handle. The nests people call us about are usually past that point: large, high, hidden behind a fixture, or in a spot where a fall is a bigger risk than a sting.

Aerosol sprays from the store reach the nest you can see. They do not reach the part of a colony tucked into a soffit, a tile gap or a wall void, which is why the activity often returns a few days later. If you are allergic to stings, do not attempt it at all.

Not to that nest. Paper wasps do not reuse a treated comb. New queens can start a fresh nest nearby the next spring if the same shaded overhangs, lights and food sources are still there, which is why the technician leaves prevention recommendations and why many homeowners keep the maintenance program.

Apex does not put technicians on ladders for wasps on two-story homes. On one-story homes the technician can treat ridge caps and eaves from the ground with an extension pole. If a nest cannot be reached from the ground, we say so and set expectations rather than promise something we will not do.

An open, papery comb with visible cells hanging from an eave or patio cover is a paper wasp nest. A hanging cluster of thousands of insects in a tree is a honey bee swarm. Bees inside a wall are a beekeeper call first. The technician confirms which one you have before anything is treated.

Keep people and pets away from the flight path, close nearby windows, and leave the nest alone. Do not spray it, knock it down or seal the opening; a blocked colony looks for another way out, sometimes into the house. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For a single nest, usually yes. If your home gets a new nest every summer, the same conditions are producing them, and a one-time visit is a bandage. The on-going maintenance program treats the eaves and fence lines on every visit and includes callbacks for covered pests between visits.

Yes. Mud daubers build small mud tubes under eaves and in garages and rarely sting. The technician removes the tubes and treats the area during the same visit as other wasp work.

On the roach you can see, yes. On the population, rarely. Repellent sprays kill the insects they touch and scatter the rest deeper into voids and cabinets. For German cockroaches that makes the problem harder to reach. Apex selects the method for the pest, the location and the label, and explains what to expect: for roaches, that usually means bait placement and follow-up rather than a single spray.

The large roaches most Sacramento-area homeowners see are American or Oriental cockroaches that live outdoors and wander in through gaps, drains and doors. They are following moisture and shelter, not dirt. German cockroaches are different: they arrive in boxes, bags and appliances and stay near food and water.

Clean the kitchen and empty the cabinets so the technician can reach the corners and hinges where roaches hide. Apex explains the preparation on the phone when you book, because a German roach job without it will not hold.

For outdoor roaches, the bi-monthly maintenance program re-treats the exterior barrier every visit, which is where they travel. For an indoor German cockroach problem, the technician sets the follow-up schedule after the first visit based on what was found.

No honest company promises permanent. Outdoor roaches will keep arriving from the neighborhood; the barrier treatment and the homeowner's sealing and sanitation keep them out. Maintenance customers in good standing get callbacks between visits if a covered pest returns.

Outdoor activity slows when temperatures drop below 40, and the big roaches retreat to garages and crawl spaces. Indoor German cockroaches do not care about the season; a warm kitchen is summer to them all year.

American and Oriental cockroaches live outdoors and use the garage as shelter: it is dark, it stays cool, and the door gap lets them in and out. They are especially common at homes near fields and along walls that irrigation keeps damp. The exterior barrier treatment covers the garage and the door threshold, and sealing the gap under the door helps.

The technician tells you the label-specific re-entry, drying and cleaning guidance for the products used at your home, and places baits where children and pets cannot reach them. Treated areas stay off-limits until dry. There is no single blanket waiting period, so ask before the visit ends.

By treating the shaded edges of the yard where ticks wait for a host, and the interior spots where a pet rests if ticks have come inside. Yard cleanup by the homeowner and vet-prescribed pet prevention are the other two parts, and the technician will tell you which matters most at your home.

Some tick species can complete their cycle indoors around a pet's bedding, but most ticks found inside were carried in and will not establish. Treating where the pet rests and keeping the pet on prevention handles the indoor side.

Shade, humidity and hosts. Unmowed edges, leaf litter, ivy and brush hold moisture, and wildlife passing through at night drops ticks there. Homes that back onto fields or greenbelts see the most.

It can be, if the yard is cleaned up and the pet is on prevention. For a property next to open ground, ticks keep arriving and the maintenance program keeps the edges treated and covers callbacks between visits.

For the first visit, yes, because it starts with an interview about where the pet goes and where ticks were found, and it may include the interior. Regular exterior visits on the maintenance program do not require you to be home; a locked gate or a loose dog gets a note and a free reschedule of the missed area.

Rarely from an open, mowed lawn. Ticks avoid sun and dry ground and wait in shaded, humid cover: the strip along the fence, under shrubs and ivy, in leaf litter, and where the lawn meets a field or greenbelt. That is why the treatment and the yard work both focus on the edges rather than the middle of the grass.

Pets stay off treated areas until they are dry, following the label-specific guidance the technician gives you for what was applied. There is no single blanket waiting period, so ask before the visit ends. The dog's own tick prevention comes from your vet.